1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a pedometer for a shoe that is mountable on a ready-made shoe to detect steps during walking and running and to measure the number of walking and running steps.
2. Related Art
In the conventional art, a pedometer has been proposed which can be attached onto a body of a user and measures the number of steps while the user walks by detecting the movement of the body. The movement of the body, however, includes a variety of other ways of movement than walking. Therefore, the conventional pedometer may erroneously detect the movement of the body while the user is not walking, which may result in erroneous measurements. To eliminate such measurement errors, Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 05-093209 discloses an invention of measuring the number of steps based on detection of output from a piezoelectric element, for example.
The above-mentioned invention has encountered a problem. According to the invention, a piezoelectric transducer and a counting device are attached onto a shoe, and the number of steps cannot be measured unless the user wears the shoe that has been modified and has the piezoelectric transducer and the counting device mounted thereon. In reality, it is extremely difficult to mount the piezoelectric transducer and the counting device on the shoe. There is not much space in the shoe to accommodate the piezoelectric transducer and the counting device, the manufacturing cost is very high, the shoe cannot be washed, and the user is required to wear the particular shoe having the step number counting device mounted thereon to measure the number of steps and forced to purchase the same shoe if the shoe wears off. Although Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 05-093209 does not specifically mention the structure of the piezoelectric transducer arranged on the shoe sole, when the piezoelectric transducer, which is made of piezoelectric ceramic, is placed by itself on the shoe sole, the piezoelectric transducer may break due to the loading applied onto the piezoelectric transducer. Therefore, the invention disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 05-093209 is infeasible.
Another proposal has been made in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-300951. According to this publication, a pressure detection sensor configured to detect a pressure is arranged in a shoe to count the number of steps by detecting variation in pressure applied to the pressure detection sensor. A shoe, however, has too severe problems, as discussed below, to accommodate, in the shoe, a pressure sensor, an impulse sensor, an apparatus and a power source to detect movement of the user's foot, and wirings to connect and link the above. Thus, the invention disclosed in Japanese Patent application Publication No. 2007-300951 is also infeasible, but the publication does not disclose at all how to implement the invention.
(1) The space inside a shoe is designed to accommodate a user's foot when the user wears the shoe and is very small. The space is actually too small to have therein a pressure sensor, an impulse sensor, an apparatus and a power source to detect the movement of the user's foot, and wirings to connect and link the above.
(2) Inside a shoe, a pressure is applied in any direction at any time at any portion because a user's foot moves as the user walks or runs. The pressure exerts tension directly on the wirings connected and linked in the shoe. This disconnects the contact between the wirings in the shoe or breaks the connections of the wirings. When connectors are used to establish connections, the connectors may also lose the contact therebetween, break or suffer from poor connection.
The problems that may arise in relation to wirings in a shoe are also specifically described in detail in Japanese Utility Model Application Publications Nos. 60-155302, 60-155305, and 60-83401. In a shoe, lead wires are arranged and connected to each other. If a user wears the shoe and moves in various manners (for example, walks, runs or jumps), tension is directly applied to the direct connections between the lead wires and sensors. This easily disconnects or degrades the direct connections. Accordingly, it has been very difficult to dispose wirings in a shoe. As a specific exemplary number of steps, a person may walk 10,000 steps per day. This person will walk 100,000 steps in 10 days, 1,000,000 steps in 100 days, and 3,650,000 steps in one year. This means that a pressure is applied in the shoe 3,650,000 times in one year due to the walking. The direct connections between the lead wires and the sensors are exposed to tension at least several hundred thousand times or more. Consequently, it has been extremely difficult to dispose lead wires in a shoe.
Additionally, the space inside a shoe is very dump and humid. If lead wires are disposed and connected in a shoe, the connections may easily rust and thus degrade. The connections between the lead wires and the sensors irrespective of whether the lead wires and the sensors are directly connected as discussed above or connected and fixed by using connectors (the resulting connections are made between the lead wires and the contact pins in the housings of the connectors) are exposed to tension as the shoe moves. Therefore, the connections may easily break, be degraded or disconnected as discussed above. As a consequence, it has been very difficult to arrange and connect wirings in a shoe.
(3) A user wearing a shoe may feel pain and uncomfortable if even a small stone is in the shoe. It has been thus very difficult to provide, in the shoe, a pressure sensor, and an apparatus and a power source to detect the movement of the user's foot without causing the user to feel uncomfortable.
TABLE 1How to connectWhether to separately measuresensors andthe number of walking andPublicationlead wiresrunning stepsJP 60-054403Directly connect aNo, Only measures the number(Utility Model)code to a pressureof stepssensorJP 60-094688Directly connect a leadNo, Only measures the number(Patent)wire to a sensorof stepsJP 60-084689Directly connect a leadNo, Only measures the number(Patent)wire to a sensorof stepsJP 60-084690Directly connect a leadNo, Only measures the number(Patent)wire to a piezoelectricof stepssensorJP 60-083404Directly connect aNo, Only measures the number(Patent)code to a pressureof stepssensorJP 60-194901Directly connect a leadNo, Only measures the number(Patent)wire to a sensorof stepsJP 60-200118Directly connect a leadNo, Only measures the number(Patent)wire to a sensorof stepsRecites: “. . . detects walking bydetecting variation in loadingcaused when a user's foot landsthe ground during walking orrunning, and outputs a signalindicating the detected result toa body 2 . . . ,” and thus disclosethat only the number of steps isdetected. The variation inloading is detected between “1”and “0,” not linearly.JP 60-200119Directly connect a leadNo, Only measures the number(Patent)wire to a sensorof stepsDistinguishes walking andrunning by detecting the periodof a foot landing the ground,does not detect the level of thepressure, and thus cannot detectfast walking such ascompetitive walking, whereboth feet land the ground.JP 60-200120Provide a sensor onNo, Only measures the number(Patent)a tongue flap,of stepsNo lead wireDetects variation in outputbetween “1” and “0”, notlinearly.JP 61-087318No lead wireNo, Only measures the number(Patent)of stepsJPDirectly connect a leadNo, Only measures the number2001-143049wire to a loadingof steps(Patent)sensorJPDirectly connect aMeasures the pressure applied2004-187808measurement shaft toto the bottom of a foot and(Patent)measuring means tooutputs the result of thedetect a pressuremeasurement as a numericalapplied on the bottomvalue.of a footTo measure the pressure appliedto the bottom of a foot,measures the amount ofvariation in length of theextensible measurement shaft.By detecting the pressure, theforce to kick the ground isdetected.The pressure is detected tounderstand the level of fatigueof a user.
As discussed above, when a pressure sensor to detect a pressure and an impulse sensor are arranged in a shoe, the number of steps cannot be measured unless the user wears the shoe that already has been modified to have such sensors installed therein. As seen from Table 1, the conventional in-shoe pedometers also disadvantageously cannot distinguish walking and running and only detect and measure the number of steps.